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I only had Elanee in my party in the beginning and for her two personal quests and apparently that was enough to declare her undying love for my character. Doesn't really help that she comes over as some weird elven pedophile/stalker if you pass her influence checks and ask her about her past. Imagine the same character but male. It wouldn't work at all.

I didn't even have them in my party except for the obligatory "hey, I know where X is and you need to have me around so I can show you."

I'm currently starting up MotB with my OC character, and I think I found out why I like it so much better:

1) No elves
2) No dwarves
3) No English countryside

NalanoH. Wildmoon
Director of the Friends of Nalano PAC
Attorney at Lawl
"His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy." - Woody Allen

I've encountered a catastrophic difficulty spike in my XCOM:EU game on normal, and I'm a bit baffled. I've got a UFO landing that, every time I play it, wipes out all my veterans. It's the first encounter I've had with a Sectopod, but that's only part of the problem. The geometry, the sheer volume of xenos, their level of armament, it all seems fairly insurmountable. I've got 4 colonels, a major, and a captain all in titan armor and armed with a mix of laser and plasma weaponry, but we just can't seem to find a foothold. Generally we can't gain any kind of favorable ground, and what cover we do have gets blasted to hell shortly into the encounter. My usual caution leaves us stranded in the open, a more aggressive approach just hurls us into the meat grinder, I'm out of ideas. Advice/suggestions?

If you have a SHIV, hold up in a strong position and try using it to scout and draw the enemy towards were you're.

Would it be such a crime if I skipped the main campaign I bounced off so many times?
MotB sounds like a delicious thing.

Yes and no. On the one hand it's almost completely unrelated to the OC except for small details and one companion doing a brief comeback towards the end but on the other hand it feels it's part of a journey and it wouldn't be the same experience without having played through the OC. It's also part of the appeal to see your character grow from swamp hick to superhero. MotB does a great job of giving the proper feeling for an epic level adventure even if it stretches the suspension of disbelief at times when it seems like every farmer in Rashemen could probably conquer the sword coast in no time.
There's also some interesting parallels with the plot of Baldur's Gate and it seems like it was made for people who played it before and paid attention to the lore.

Just played LA Noire for two hours and half,driving is awful,fist fighting medicore and shootings fairly good. Its quite immersive game,also facial animation is nice,don't know why people bash it.

I don't think anyone bashed it - it's just it appears to have taken up the majority of the budget.

The actual 'detective' bit of the game is shite - absolute random guesswork based on total nonsense - and that's a real shame.

Someone described it well when they said it was better to see it as you being in control of a psychotic madman stumbling through a career in the Police - that, and that fantastic article about the guy who took his Dad (who'd lived in LA and been a Policeman at the time) around the game to see how realistic it was (and it was VERY realistic with a few clangers) make the game totally worthwhile - if not, perhaps, a game...

Just finished Stalker: SoC for the first time using Complete Mod 2009. Really a great experience. I still think that the beginning is quiet terrible, but once you reach the Garage it really opens up. I completed the game with one of the false endings (I want to be rich!) as I didnt want to go back to the starting area again. Doh!

Would it be such a crime if I skipped the main campaign I bounced off so many times?
MotB sounds like a delicious thing.

Give it a go. Then you'll always have MotB acting as a carrot-on-a-stick for if you ever think of doing an NWN2 playthrough again. That and the good parts of NWN2 are what get me through the original game. It's like crossing a swamp where there's inexplicably a great pub every so often and a free bar on the other side.

After beating Antichamber, playing Torchland 2 and Crusader Kings 2 on the side, I started Risen which has been on the backlog for too long.
I never played Gothic 3 but Gothic 2 used to be one of my favourite games many, many moons ago. Well, the paralleles are obvious, down to the somewhat clunky interface. I remember that in the old Gothics you had to move every piece of currency individually if you wanted to trade something so I count that as progress. It still feels like something straight from the 90s but at least it's tolerable now. The combat itself is also very Gothic: clunky, brutal and absolutely relentless. Stray away two steps from the road and get pulverized by the local fauna. I also died a couple of times because I mistook regular wolves for the weaker hungry wolves. How silly of me.
After helping out a bit on some farm I accidentally ended up with the local inquisition. It was a bit unexpected, especially since their primary recruitment method appears to be attempted murder. Very Gothic, I'll admit that much. In their headquarters I began training with the staff and after a series of fairly difficult fights against other "recruits" I now have to win against my "master" who uses a sword instead of a staff, mainly because I beat up his smug friend in a fair training fight. Petty bastard. This fight seems to be physically impossible as he takes off about 2/3 of my health with a single hit and when I hit him it's barely visible. Might as well chalk up Risen for the worst tutorial thread.

I've encountered a catastrophic difficulty spike in my XCOM:EU game on normal, and I'm a bit baffled. I've got a UFO landing that, every time I play it, wipes out all my veterans. It's the first encounter I've had with a Sectopod, but that's only part of the problem. The geometry, the sheer volume of xenos, their level of armament, it all seems fairly insurmountable. I've got 4 colonels, a major, and a captain all in titan armor and armed with a mix of laser and plasma weaponry, but we just can't seem to find a foothold. Generally we can't gain any kind of favorable ground, and what cover we do have gets blasted to hell shortly into the encounter. My usual caution leaves us stranded in the open, a more aggressive approach just hurls us into the meat grinder, I'm out of ideas. Advice/suggestions?

I read this and thought, 'Supply Ship' and I honestly think that mission is bugged. I tried for 4 hours and couldn't get past it on Normal, with the same issue of all enemies on the level appearing at once. I think the Sectopod starts walking forward from the back as soon as you trigger any enemy, so you are hosed whether you deal with the first mob efficiently or not - you're either dealing with everyone at once, or else a rolling, endless mob.

I've encountered a catastrophic difficulty spike in my XCOM:EU game on normal, and I'm a bit baffled. I've got a UFO landing that, every time I play it, wipes out all my veterans. It's the first encounter I've had with a Sectopod, but that's only part of the problem. The geometry, the sheer volume of xenos, their level of armament, it all seems fairly insurmountable. I've got 4 colonels, a major, and a captain all in titan armor and armed with a mix of laser and plasma weaponry, but we just can't seem to find a foothold. Generally we can't gain any kind of favorable ground, and what cover we do have gets blasted to hell shortly into the encounter. My usual caution leaves us stranded in the open, a more aggressive approach just hurls us into the meat grinder, I'm out of ideas. Advice/suggestions?

Originally Posted by vinraith

It's not one particular map. I've completely restarted on three separate occasions, with three completely different maps, and had the exact same experience. It's a supply ship, so there's only a very small "outside," usually at a height disadvantage. Enemies pour out by the dozen, and then what I described above happens. It seems to be impossible to avoid activating a huge crowd, as they're all right next to each other. Typically, any approach at all activates 3-4 groups.

This sounds like the bug where ALL aliens activate and attack. See this post for example, and these. If it's reproducible, maybe the developers would like a copy of your save file.

Insert angry rant about how XCOM is still badly broken after 4 months and so I'm still not playing it.

I just bought Dark Souls from GAME for £12.99, not bad, as nothing beats having a physical boxed copy in my opinion, especially when makers like these and Bethesda give you some lovely goodies with it. Anyway, I hope it's as good as you guys make it out to be!
Bit annoyed though as I thought it required Steam to play, so I go and activate the key with Steam then realise it can be ran seperately. So now I have it linked to my Steam account and as it's own game install. I guess that isn't such a bad thing. Should I download and run it from Steam or seperately :/

Also bought Lord of the Rings BFME2 CE for £15, bargain, considering it goes for a lot more online. The game disk has had some use so it has dropped it's value, but it's still in good condition and everything else is pretty much spotless. Used to love this game!

Currently playing Simraceway (which I drop in and out of regularly), War Thunder (which is awesome), Borderlands 2 (naturally) and I guess Battlefield 3 at short notice depending on whether or not I see my clanmates online soon. I haven't played in some time, they probably think/hope I'm dead.